Grand Slams are the most prestigious tennis tournaments played across the globe and every player dreams of winning it least once. Each tennis season begins with the Australian Open on the hard courts of Melbourne, followed by the French Open on the red clay in Paris.
Next comes Wimbledon, played on the iconic grass courts in London and finally, the season ends with the US Open, again on hard courts in New York. Winning just one major title is enough to define one’s career. But winning all four? That’s the stuff of greatness.
Only 10 players in the Open Era have managed to win all four major titles (a Grand Slam) at least once in their careers. This rare achievement is known as career Grand Slam. Now, imagine winning an Olympic gold medal in tennis along with all four majors in the same year. That’s called a career golden slam: when a player wins all four major slams and an Olympic gold medal in the same year.
However, there has been only one player to win all four major slams and an Olympic gold medal in the same year and she remains the only male or female athlete to achieve that rare feat. So who is she?
In 1988, 19-year-old Steffi Graf, ranked No. 1, started her season with a win at the Australian Open. She followed it up by dominating the French Open, then conquered the grass courts at Wimbledon and wrapped up the slam season with a win at the US Open. But she wasn’t done yet. That same year (1988), at the Seoul Olympics, Graf stormed through the competition and defeated Argentina’s Gabriela Sabatini in the final to clinch the Olympic gold medal in women’s singles. With that victory, she achieved the rarest of the rare: Calendar golden slam ( winning all four major slams and gold medal in a calendar year).
Graf’s 1988 season is widely considered the greatest single year by any tennis player, male or female. Her dominance across all surfaces: hard, clay, and grass showcased her ability to adapt to different courts within no time.
Across her illustrious career, Steffi Graf won 22 major singles titles, the third-most in the Open Era behind Serena Williams (23) and Novak Djokovic (24) and the fourth-most in history behind Margaret Court (24) and above two included. She held the World No. 1 ranking for a record 377 weeks and won 107 career titles.